Did You Know That Air Travel Pollutes The Environment More Than Cars?

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This morning I read a disturbing article. It appears that the California legislature is considering a zero tolerance policy toward drinking straws in a bill that would ban restaurants from offering customers straws with their beverages unless they specifically request one. Under the law, a restaurant worker who serves a drink with an unrequested straw could face up to 6 months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000. I'm not making this up. The article is hyperlinked.

This kind of insanity though, is par for the course in California. That's why I left the open air asylum 24 years ago. And this banning of straws business forced me to inquire more deeply into something I've wondered about for a long time; the amount of pollution per air mile, per seat, in a commercial jetliner. That brings me to the provocative question headlining this post. Did You Know That Air Travel Pollutes The Environment More Than Cars? But first a disclaimer. I'm not a climate-change denier, nor am I a climate-change alarmist. I am among the millions of people trying to sift through the claims and counter-claims, media hype, fear-mongering, outright dishonesty, political opportunism, and pseudo-science. I am not a meteorologist or a climatologist, so I am left with trusting others. And that is the crux of the issue in 2018, isn't it? Trust! Who the hell do we trust in a world where everything, and I mean everything, is politicized,.....even drinking straws?

So what I found was the article hyperlinked in this different color here. You really should click on it and read it. The article reveals some uncomfortable facts. For one, air travel is far more polluting and unregulated than you could imagine. Yet we never really hear about that, do we? Now at the risk of appearing to compromise objectivity in the climate-change debate, I would like to knock some self-righteous types off their high-flying horses.

It is no secret that the climate-change issue has become just another political football here in the United States, with the blue-state left being the climate alarmists, and the red-state right being the climate deniers. American politics is like that. Very entertaining! What could make it even more entertaining is the as yet undiscovered chink in the climate-change hysteria of the Left, a vulnerability if you will. It isn't a denial of climate-change, but evidence that they are very selective in where the spotlight goes in who contributes most to its causes. Truth be told, people on the Left travel more by air, far more. It’s just a fact that Liberals are more urban, more educated, and more well traveled. It is not uncommon for urban, liberal, snobs to mock those country bumpkins who have never applied for a passport. I have some vociferous liberal friends who will lecture me on climate-change one day, and leave for France the next. You know the type, the thirty-something Brad and Alexa's who brag about their upcoming vacation, their 10 day drive through French wine country. Ooh La La!! Meanwhile, Ed and Bertha are pulling into the drive-up at a McDonalds somewhere in California, MAGA hats proudly displayed on their noggins, when the local S.W.A.T. team storms from the bushes, weapons drawn. It turns out Ed and Bertha flaunted the law, imbibing their Diet Cokes through contraband straws.

I won't bore you with statistics but I highly recommend, whether you are on the Left or Right of the climate issue, reading the Wikipedia article titled Environmental Impact of Aviation. Below is an excerpt from the article.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Per Passenger Kilometer
Emissions of passenger aircraft per passenger kilometrer vary of differing factors such as the size and type of aircraft. Below are averages:

*Domestic, short distance, less than 463 km (288 mi): 257 g/km CO2 or 259 g/km (14.7 oz/mile) CO2e

*Domestic, long distance, greater than 463 km (288 mi): 177 g/km CO2 or 178 g/km (10.1 oz/mile) CO2e

*Long distance flights: 113 g/km CO2 or 114 g/km (6.5 oz/mile) CO2e

These emissions are similar to a four-seat car with one person on board; however, flying trips often cover longer distances than would be undertaken by car, so the total emissions are much higher. For perspective, per passenger a typical economy-class New York to Los Angeles round trip produces about 715 kg (1574 lb) of CO2 (but is equivalent to 1,917 kg (4,230 lb) of CO2 when the high altitude "climatic forcing" effect is taken into account). Within the categories of flights above, emissions from scheduled jet flights are substantially higher than turboprop or chartered jet flights. About 60% of aviation emissions arise from international flights, and these flights are not covered by the Kyoto Protocol and its emissions reduction targets.

Now why do you suppose the Kyoto Protocol doesn't cover the CO2 emissions of International Flights, which cause 60% of the pollution created by commercial aircraft? Ask yourself who supports Kyoto most vociferously? Is it the same group whose lifestyles are dependent upon flying internationally? Interesting to say the least.

Figures from British Airways suggest carbon dioxide emissions of 100g per passenger kilometer for large jet airliners? Those numbers are staggering, and I don't want to get lost in the them but if a trip from NY to LA, round trip, produces 1574 pounds of CO2 per person, then NY to Paris creates 2347 pounds of CO2 per person. That's almost 2.5 tons of CO2 in the atmosphere so Brad and Alexa can do France. And to think that they will be sitting in First Class on their return flight, sipping champagne somewhere over the Atlantic while reading in the NYT's about Berthas arrest, confident that she got her just deserts. After all, Alexa doesn't drink her champagne from a straw; she's a liberal, she votes democrat, and she’s concerned about climate-change.

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